MLB to favor Oakland’s stadium bid?

This is all speculative, but Ballpark Digest reports that the buzz at the winter meetings in Florida is that MLB’s committee tasked with finding the A’s a new home is about to recommend giving Oakland a chance to build it.

If Oakland has a site, the money and the will to put together a ballpark package, we’re guessing MLB will take the safe route and recommend the team stay there, as opposed to creating a messy territorial battle by allowing a move to San Jose. Indeed, the talk at the Winter Meetings is that an Oakland recommendation is now pretty much a done deal — with the additional spin (albeit accurate) that this proved the committee was right all along in waiting things out before making a recommendation.

New A’s Ballpark remains skeptical that Oakland can put together a site. But if it can, it raises the question of what the A’s ownership will do. Their options would be to work with Oakland on a new park near Jack London Square — backing down from Lew Wolff’s “San Jose or bust” comments — or to sell the team, as Wolff hinted in an Athletics Nation interview. Which one would probably depend on whether they think the rehoused A’s would be profitable enough to pay off the construction costs and allow enough payroll to field a competitive team.